USB hubs are certainly not bleeding edge technology, but with USB 3.0 becoming increasingly common in both computers and new USB devices the one or two USB 3.0 ports you get on your computers are hardly enough to run all of your speedy new USB 3.0 devices. Luckily enough, USB 3.0 hubs have come down in price quite a bit lately, so there are many different kinds to choose from. Anker was kind enough to send us a review unit of their “Uspeed USB 3.0 7 Port Hub + 1 Charging Port” that sports some interesting features including an external power plug and a special burgundy charging port that supplies an above-average number of amps to charge USB devices more expediently. Did our testing of this USB hub leave us wired or tired? Read on to find out.
The 7+1 hub comes with a four foot cable to attach it to your computer and a reasonably long power cable with an external power source. What’s nice about the external power source is that it uses the standard two prong plug for its power cable attachment so you could easily use, say, the power cable from an original PS2 if you wanted to give it even more length.
Before deploying the 7+1 hub I was using a very cheap battleship-shaped non-powered USB 2.0 hub that I got from a bookstore. The convenience difference between a powered and non-powered USB hub ended up being fairly considerable. With my old hub I was forever having to unplug and then replug-in my USB mouse and keyboard whenever I woke up or restarted my computer because of their particularly power-hungry nature. With the standard 12V plug constantly feeding extra power to your USB devices, there is definitely no need to worry in that regard. The other convenience that the external power enables on the 7+1 hub is the “+1” in its name, the aforementioned burgundy charging-only port.
The charging port in my experience worked as advertised. It doles out as much amperage as a standard AC to USB wall plug adapter would, but it is conveniently integrated into the 7+1 hub. The extra benefit of the extra amperage basically boils down to being able to charge your devices as fast as if they were plugged directly into the wall instead of having to wait the extra time that the lower throughput from USB ports usually takes to charge devices. Another benefit of this port comes from the fact that it doesn’t supply a data connection to the computer like the other ports. This may disappoint some people that want the extra power and a data connection, but it was great to not have to worry about closing down programs like iTunes and the like that enjoy popping up uninvited when USB devices are connected to charge.
My biggest issue with the 7+1 hub was that when devices are connected to it it takes up a fairly large area. Where many USB 3.0 hubs will have all of their ports on the same side or have some on top instead of the back, the Uspeed 7+1 hub places them along both sides adding at least a 4″-5″ perimeter that the device requires for all of the cables attached to it. If you have a big desk or a convenient place to shove it, this space issue is less of a problem, but for a device that should reasonably be expected to try and keep its profile down it’s a bit of a disappointment.
Overall, the USB 3.0 ports on the hub operated just as quickly as the ones built into our test computers and no operational issues were experienced during testing. Compared to other $50 USB 3.0 hubs with a similar number of ports, the Uspeed 7+1 is worth a look if you have the space to accommodate its possibly inconvenient space requirements and think that having a dedicated charging port would ease your computing life.
- Comes with a decently long USB 3.0 cable and an easily extensible power source
- Can keep multiple power-hungry USB devices running without a hitch
- Dedicated charging port charges devices faster than standard USB 3.0 ports
- Charging port also allows for the connection of devices without worrying about shutting off their associated programs
- Requires a fairly large area compared to its competitor and companion hubs
- Costs $50, which sits at the upper end of the price spectrum for quality USB 3.0 hubs
A review unit was provided to us by Anker